Pike follows trend of libraries serving communities

Thursday

Mar 27, 2014 at 9:15 AM

Libraries are not just about borrowing books any more.

WayneWitkowski

Libraries are not just about borrowing books any more.

That's the message conveyed by libraries throughout Monroe County and at the Pike County Public Library. Along with a new headquarters that opened last fall at 119 E. Harford St., the president of its board of directors, Kirk Mackey, has been pressing for more community interaction.

Sure, Pike and other libraries in the area host community groups for meetings and functions. But Mackey wants the library to work even harder to host its own community activities and become more visible with residents. It furthers the sentiment raised by Rob Rohner, who served as president before Mackey and stepped down at the end of last year to serve strictly as a board member when his other duties got too demanding as Lehman Township supervisor and secretary/treasurer.

Mackey continued to impress that idea on Pike library Director Ellen Schaffner again during Monday's monthly library board meeting as he and Rohner have been making the rounds around the county to get some ideas to promote interest.

Schaffner started last year with making 130 magazines available on library computers to be ordered online as well as 50 checkouts of e-books. New computers and a new printer are on order for the Dingmans branch.

They want to keep the library humming. Circulation was down a little from January to February in Milford but is higher than a year ago. Oddly, the numbers in Dingmans are the opposite — higher in February than January but lower than a year ago. And patrons are starting to tap more into the library's redesigned website.

Schaffner said library cards are being distributed to students in the Delaware Valley elementary schools. They plan on doing the same with the Bushkill Elementary and Lehman Intermediate students at the East Stroudsburg High School North campus as well as Wallenpaupack district schools. Schaffner said she is looking to organize field trips from schools to the library.

The library also has been forming a book club that currently has 15 members.

Mackey said he wants a meeting with board members, members of the Pike County Board of Commissioners and reps from Penn TeleData and Met-Ed to talk about setting up new fiber-optic lines to improve the slow service. He was told the process is expensive separating those lines from other utilities, although one board member with some background on it disagreed about the costs and said the lines can run together.

Mackey said the library continues to examine "in infant stages" having a bookmobile that would go to senior centers, day-care centers and homeowners associations. Board member Elspeth Goodin has led the study, saying the Eastern Monroe Public Library restored an old school bus and spends $13,000 a year with the driver and a staff member. Mackey said affordable bookmobiles are available from libraries that have lost the funding to support them.

Local author Kim Giarratano contributed 10 of her books to each branch that are geared to a young adult audience that the library also is looking to attract.

"We're headed in the right direction for things we're doing with the community," Mackey said during the meeting.

The library is looking to meet with the Pike County commissioners and senior citizens group to host get-togethers on Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. in the community room. The board is asking the Pike Agency on Aging to provide lunches and transportation and will ask senior volunteers from the group to handle cleanups.

"We're working on a grant for this and think it can be approved sometime in May," Mackey said. "We might start setting this up in mid-April. We thought it inappropriate to charge for the room. This is something to give back to the seniors in our community."

Board members discussed bringing in older guest speakers who have lived in the area to share their stories of how it was in Pike County in the past for a regular program.

A Penn State master gardener will be at the library 10 a.m.-noon Saturday talking about growing vegetables in the first of a Master Gardener series there.

Safe Haven of Pike County, a domestic and sexual abuse nonprofit, also is holding two community events at the library. A four-part documentary and lecture series, "The History of the Women's Movement in America," will be held every Thursday in April from 7-8:30 p.m.

And with Sexual Abuse and Awareness month in April, Safe Haven will hold at the library on April 12 from 10 a.m.-noon a community and family discussion titled "Using Children's Literature to Talk to Kids About Sexual Assault."

From noon-4 p.m. April 6, the library plans on having a table at a Family Expo hosted by state Rap. Rosemary Brown, R-189, a staunch supporter of the Pike library and all libraries in her district. Visitors can register for new library cards. On the same day from 1-3 p.m., author Dr. Gregory Steinberg will host a reading and discussion of his book "Doctor's Odyssey" at the library.

"We're looking to do more programs and book readings," Schaffner said, "We're doing a lot with a limited budget."

One thing is certain: The Pike library board is on the move with ideas.

With national franchiser Friendly's and Domino's Pizza closing businesses on Route 209 in Middle Smithfield, ESSA leaving a closed building to relocate farther south and Fernwood Hotel closed, Middle Smithfield Township supervisors are confident the business climate will bounce back along the Route 209 corridor.

"Middle Smithfield Township has been very fortunate in having a number of new businesses open. While we are sad to see some businesses leave, we're happy to see that there is interest in those properties, and hope to have them filled soon," said Middle Smithfield Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Annette Atkinson, an advocate of building the business community in the township. She said the township is working with a few of those landlords as they have already attracted possible tenants who may need permits.